Albanian Catholic Bulletin

in s( THE CURRENTS OF MOSLEM Bekt AND BEKTASH WRITING IN ALBANIA nian menl (1850-1950)1 also subs guer took Though the most creative and innovative forces death, lived at the famous Bektash teke (monas· flee of and culture in the second tery) of Durballi in Thessaly, one of the oldest in poel half of the nineteenth century were encompassed the Balkans. He wrote verse both in Turkish and nati( within the Rilindja movement of national awaken­ in Albanian. Amongst his disciples at the great bure ing, Albanian literature in script did not teke of Durballi was Baba Abidin Leskoviku from the: wane completely2. Indeed, the Moslem and Bektash Leskovik in southern Albania, founder of the Tep literature of the late nineteenth and early twenti­ Leskovik teke. Leskoviku composed spiritual verse lang eth centuries with its primarily religious fixation in Turkish and Albanian, including a hymn to the continued to evolve in accordance with the liter­ Durballi. Another talented author of much mysti· prise ary, cultural and,c in particular, spiritual traditions cal verse was Baba Adem Vexh-hi 0841-1927) that set in the eighteenth century and, in the process, from Gjakove. He travelled widely, in particular the came to evince not only a higher level of skill, on pilgrimages to Mecca, Medina and Kerbela. In bles discipline and erudition, but also an increase in 1877, he was sent as a baba (father) to Prizren 155< artistic and linguistic refinement. Nonetheless, it where he opened a teke. From 1922 to his death, teer. must be said that the more directly religious focus he headed the teke in his native Gjakove. Baba epic of Albanian writing in in this period Meleq Shemberdhenji, also known as Meleq Bab resulted in its gradually more restrictive usage as a Staravecka, was from the Skrapar region of south· the vehicle of literary expression and thus in its es­ ern Albania and was educated at the now aban· bab trangement from the mainstream of Albanian lit­ doned Bektash teke in Cairo, where he became a 191· erature and culture. dervish. He returned to Albania and took part in by I the nationalist movement, in particular by illegally It was the Bektash who best maintained the to , distributing books and spreading new ideas. link between the Albanian nationalist movement Ane Shemberdhenji held the title of baba at the teke and the cultural traditions of the Orient in the peri bearing his name until 1914 when the latter was nineteenth century. The relatively liberal and open­ eK destroyed. He is the author of both nationalist and minded character of their religious practices and bal:; religious verse in Albanian collected in a now their pantheistic beliefs including both Islamic and con extremely rare volume published in the twenties. Christian elements enabled them to strive to break afte Shemberdhenji is considered one of the best down the barriers separating the Moslem, Catholic Alb Bektash poets of the period. He was also a friend and Orthodox communities. The best known Al­ on and admirer of Nairn Frasheri whom he called, banian Bektash author by far was Nairn. bey his "Zemra e Shqiperise, gurra e urtesise, pishtar j Frasherl (1846-1900) whose religious, nationalist Gja vegjelise, shejtor i njerezise" (The heart of Albania, and didactic works, because of their significance tol the fountain of wisdom, torch-bearer of the poor, and exceptional impact on the national awaken­ to saint of humanity). ing in the late nineteenth century, are best treated Mal within the realms of Rilindja literature. The Bektash tradition of religious and patriotic ver verse, inspired both by the sect's mystic and pan· Among the many other Bektash poets of the the theistic beliefs and by its nationalist aspirations, wa: period was Baba Muharem Mahzuni or Mehzuni continued well into the twentieth century. Baba (d. 1867) from Gjirokaster who, from 1845 to his wh Ibrabimi from the teke of Qesarake near Kolonje the.

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in southern Albania was active, like many other sian. Towards the end of his life, he also wrote in Bektash leaders, in the secret distribution of Alba­ Albanian. The German oriental scholar Franz nian books and literature, and suffered imprison­ Babinger 0891-1967) who visited Baba Selim at ment by Turkish military forces. In 1913, he was his teke described his verse as being exceptionally also arrested by the Greek authorities but was beautiful. Poet, writer and translator Baba All subsequently freed by nationalist figure, poet and Tomorl (d. 1947) was born in Shale near Tepelene guerrilla Sali Butka 0852-1938). When the Greeks and studied in Janina (I6annina in northern Greece) :::>nas­ took Kolonje again, Baba Ibrahimi was forced to as had Nairn and Sami Frasheri. After the burning flee and his teke was burnt down. In one of his of the tekes in 1913-1915, he moved to Cairo, ~st in poems, Dimri (Winter), he compares the Albanian returning to Albania only after the end of World I and great nation, ravaged by war and oppression, to the War I. He helped organize the three Bektash Con­ from burden of a long hard Winter. Baba Salihu from gresses held in Albania in the twenties (1921 in :- the the southern Albanian village of Matohasanaj near Prishte, 1926 in Gjirokaster, and 1929 in Koefe) ....erse Tepelene used his teke as an illegal Albanian­ which led to the establishment of a recognized language elementary school. He was also active in religious community in the country. Tomori is the n to the distribution of Albanian books and was im­ author of at least six books of Bektash literature :J.ysti­ prisoned by the Turks in 1902. It was in prison and history, including poetry translations and origi­ :927) that he wrote much of his poetry and translated nal verse, some of which was published under cular the epic Hadfqatu as-su 'ada (The garden of the a. In the pseudonym Ali Tyrabiu. He opposed all reli­ izren blessed) of the great Azerbaijan poet Fuzfill 0494­ gious fanaticism in his writings and endeavoured eath, 1556), the work which had also inspired the nine­ to combine Christian and Bektash elements. Tomori 3aba teenth-century poet Dalip Frasheri in his Albanian was one of the rare Bektash authors who aban­ leIeq epic Hadika. Also from the Tepelene region was doned Arabic script and used the Latin alphabet mth­ 8aba Ahmed Torani (d. 1928), who travelled to for publication, a change worthy of note. Some of ban­ the Middle East in his youth. He took the title his works also appeared in newspapers and jour­ ne a baba in 1908 in his native village of Turan. In nals of the period. In 1947, he was accused of 1914, his teke, like many others, was burned down :rt in espionage, sentenced to death and executed. all by Greek extremists and he was forced to move 5 y The last of the Bektash poets in this tradition :eas. to Vlore. He is said to have been a talented poet. is Ibrahim Hasnaj (b. 1912) of Tirane, who uses teke Another author of Bektash spiritual verse in the the pseudonyms Hima and Bardhyl Nizami. Hasnaj, was period was Salih Nijazi Dedei (1876-1941) of Starje who is also remembered for his rediscovery of the and e Kolonjes who was raised in Anatolia, became a early nineteenth-century Bektash poet Zenel Bastari, now baba in 1908 and a kryegjysh (elder) of the Bektash became a Bektash himself in 1937, the year he ties. community in 1916. He remained in Turkey even began writing verse. He was secretary-general of best after the closing of the tekes there. He returned to the pre-war Bektash community and editor-in-chief .end Albania at the end of 1930 and was shot to death of the Bektash periodical Djersa (Sweat), of which led, on 28 November 1941 in Tirane, apparently for his opposition to Italian rule. Baba Hamza eight issues were published up to 1947. Ibrahim 'lr i Hasnaj was imprisoned for ten years from 1947 to nia, Gjakova 0882-1952) from Gjakove also journeyed 1957 in Tirane prison, initially in a cell with writ­ :>or, to the Middle East as a young man and returned to take the title baba at the teke of Shtipi in ers , Andrea Varfi and , Macedonia in 1912. He was the author of much and suffered a further five years internment. He is otic verse of Bektash and Shi'ite inspiration. One of the author of three volumes of as yet unpublished lan­ the best educated Bektash writers of the period mystical verse of Bektash inspiration: Une dhe )ns, was Baba Selim Ruhi 0869-1944) from Elbasan ndiesite e mia, 1939 (My absolution and I), Lot aha who became a baba in 1907 and is the author of skamnoresh, 1940 (Tears of the suffering), and nje three poetic divans in Arabic, Turkish and Per­ Rreze te zjarrta, 1980 (Fiery rays). It goes without

XV 1994 - Vol. XV 173 ,..­, Albanian Catholic Bulletin saying that these volumes, written in Latin script, ing religious and political figure from Gjakove remained well hidden over the long years in which who is said to have headed a teke there for sev· vel religion was persecuted in Albania and any liter­ enty-five years, we have one piece of religious Mo ary expression thereof was extremely dangerous. verse entitled Tbirr me zemer (Call out with your lite With the final lifting of the ban on religion, the heart). Sheh Jonuzi (1848-1909), also known a! tab seventy-eight year old Ibrahim Hasnaj was chosen Hajdar and by the pseudonym Sabri, was a Melarni KOI president of the provisional committee of the dervish born in Jashanice e Toplice in Kosovo. He wit Bektash community which was solemnly re-estab­ studied theology in and returned to Kosovo sec lished in Tirane on 27 January 1991. to open a school in Suhadoll i Ulet near Mitrovice int< where teaching was given in Albanian, somethin~ spiJ Although the Bektash had gradually come to quite illegal at the time. He was often at od rno enjoy full recognition as a religious community by with the religious and government authorities (d. the 1930s, they had lost ground culturally. The the period and suffered much persecution. Sh wa: burning and looting of the southern Albanian tekes Jonuzi is the author of nine iliihf (religious hymn), del by Greek extremists during the Balkan War and an eli/i, i.e. a collection of twenty-nine poe Mo World War I constituted an immeasurable cultural designed to teach the Arabic alphabet, and abo me loss from which Bektash writing never recovered. ten other poems. lisi1 In addition, the transition to Latin script which Alb would have offered greater opportunities for the Moslem literature in Albania and indeed Alba at publication and mass distribution of literary and nian literature in general was an exclusively m~ wa. religious works did not take place to any substan­ prerogative and, with a very few exceptions, w TUI tial extent. Indeed it was no doubt the inability of to remain so until the 1960s. At the turn of nia what remained of Bektash literature to adapt to century, we nonetheless find the trace of w abc the Latin alphabet and to contemporary publish­ may be the first female poet in Albania, Nesibe die ing which signalled its final demise. Gjirokaster, the author of a qasfde (historical ode sec in thirty-one quatrains, dated 1897 [1313 AH.], d Though by far the strongest group, the Bektash po: picting the fighting which took place in the sou were not the only dervish order to devote itself to inc em Albanian border region between Greek a religious verse in Arabic script. Dervish Salihu Ta:: Turkish forces. In one of these common fronti (1820s-1890s), born in the village of Libizhde e toe skirmishes, the Greeks had bombarded Saran' Hasit near Prizren, was an adherent of the Kadiri. Po­ and were obviously threatening Gjirokaster itse He grew up in Rahovec where the sheik of the me The qasfde or gjyftei of Nesibe was discovered' local teke recognized his aptitude and interest in list the 1950s by Osman Myderrizi in a 48-page man philosophy and mysticism and sent him to Ko ani wI­ script containing twenty-five poems by various a in eastern Macedonia for further education among ler: thors including , which found' the Kadiri under Myhliz Dedja. There he became UI. way via Shkoder and Durres to Tirane. It is co a dervish and returned to his native Libizhde e lar ceivable that Nesibe was simply the variant spe Hasit to open a Kadiri teke himself. He actively SCI ing for a male poet called Nesib Mezlnl thou supported the League of Prizren in his old age fie the latter, in one of his own poems, recomrnen and had many adherents, including political figure K)i that Nesibe "leave the qasfde alone." We kno Bajram Curri (1862-1925). Although the manuscripts SCI nothing more of her life at any rate. Also in containing his poetry were all destroyed, in par­ na. manuscript in question is historical verse, thou ticular during the Balkan wars, some of his verse be not of the same quality, by one Abdulhamid has been preserved in the liturgy of many of the tu: Gjirokaster and religious poetry of Bektash ins ' Alevi orders. Dervish Salihu 's son, Sheh Kadria Lh ration by Hoxhe Dobl, both no doubt of the (d. ca. 1903), was another Kadiri poet and public rn· of the century. figure of note who was murdered in Gjakove about m 1903. From Sheh Emini i Sadive (d. 1918), a lead­ SC

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Gjakove The oriental tradition of the mevlud, religious tions, the last of which published in Korye 1944. for sev­ verse celebrating the birth of the prophet Ibrahim. Dalliu 0878-1952), a writer known religious Mohammed, which has been referred to in the for his biting satire and editor of the Tirane weekly lith your literary production of earlier Albanian authors, no­ newspaper Dajti from 1923 to 1926, was the au­ nown as tably , Abdullah Sulejman thor of a 250-page mevlud, the longest in Geg a Melarni Konispali and Ismail Floqi, continued to find favour dialect. sovo. He with a number of Moslem authors throughout the Almost all remaining authors of twentieth-cen­ ) Kosovo second half of the nineteenth century and well tury Moslem literature we know of at present are Mitrovice into the twentieth. The most direct source of in­ from Kosovo. One of the most prolific of these )mething spiration for Albanian writers remained the fa­ was Hilmi Abdyl Maliqi 0856?-1928), also known at odds mous mevlud of the Turkish poet Suleyman <;elebi as Sheh Mala of Rahovec or Sheh Maliqi. He was Drities of (d. 1422). Hatez Ali Ulqinaku 0853-1913), who born in Kopila Gllave near Rahovec and received Dn. Sheh was a Moslem writer from Vlcinj (as his surname a good education both in Rahovec and at the .s hymn), denotes), an Albanian-speaking port on the Medresa (Islamic school) of Mehmet Pasha in e poems Montenegrin coast, made a translation of <;elebi's Prizren, learning not only Albanian and Serbo­ nd about mevlud, entitled simply Ter ume-i mevlud 'ala Croatian, but also Turkish, Persian and Arabic. His lisdn-i amavud (Translation of a mevlud into the mystical, descriptive and sentimental verse in a ), which he published in Istanbul ~ed divan consisting of seventy-seven poems, as yet Alba­ at the beginning of 1878 [1295 A.H.]. Vlqinaku for the most part unpublished, marks a transition rely male was also the author of other translations from from traditional oriental verse to the classical po­ lons, was Turkish and of a large Turkish-Albanian, Alba­ etry of the late Rilindja period. Maliqi was also the m of the nian-Turkish dictionary compiled in Arabic script author of sixteen risalet or religious epistles and of what about 1897. The Turkish-Albanian section of the ~esibe of translations from Turkish, Persian and Arabic, of dictionary comprises 915 pages whereas the sub­ including a four-hundred-page translation of the :ical ode) sequent Albanian-Turkish section, of which we waridat of the Arab poet, jurist and rebel Bedr I\.H.], de­ possess the original, covers only 168 pages and ed-Din of Samawna 0358-1416). Maliqi 's manu­ he south­ includes about 4,000 different Albanian lexemes. scripts are said to be preserved at the teke of reek and Tahir efendi Halll Popova 0856?-1949), known Rahovec. Maliqi's contemporary Haxhi Ymer Lutfi 1 frontier too as Mehmet Tahir efendi, from the village of Payarizi 0871-1929) was a poet and mystic from Sarande Popave near Vuyiterne in Kosovo, also wrote a Prizren who studied at the Fatih Medresa in iter itself. mevlud based on that of <;elebi and had it pub­ )vered in Istanbul. Though steeped in Islamic tradition, he lished in Istanbul about 1876. Popava's mevlud, welcomed the October Revolution and supported ge manu­ which is said to have been recited widely in Mos­ the fledgling Communist Party in Skopje as early lriouS au­ lem circles in Kosovo until recently, and that of as 1920, an activity which brought him into con­ found its Ulqinaku are thus the earliest known Albanian­ It is con­ flict with the Serbian police. A noted disciple of language works to have been published in Arabic Hilmi Maliqi was Shaip 0884-1951), a Melami ant spell­ script, a good decade before ]ani Vreto 's modi­ dervish from the village of Mamushe. He was the dthough fied version in the Latin alphabet of Muhamet )mmends author of seventeen poems in Albanian, twenty in KyYyku 's Eroeheja, written originally in Arabic ~e Turkish and five in Serbo-Croatian, all written in know script about 1820. Other mevluds, be they origi­ Arabic script. His emotionally charged verse in an so in the nals or translations of <;elebi, are known to have ~, Albanian less suffused with oriental vocabulary though been written in Albanian by the nineteenth cen­ hamid of includes spiritual topics and love lyrics. tury Haxhi <:i~koja of Ko~e, by Tahir efendi lsh inspi­ Lluka (d. 1908), by Hatez Ali Kor~a 0874-1957), Although Arabic script had been used for Al­ fthe tum member of the High Council of the Sheria (a banian for almost two centuries, it was never fully mevlud dated 1909), and by Hafh Abdullah suited to the Albanian phonological system and SCmlaku whose mevlud went through four edi­ could cause quite a number of misunderstandings

:- Vol. XV 1994 - Vol. XV 175 Albanian Catholic Bulletin - for the inexperienced reader. Rexhep Voka (1847­ religious studies in Gjakove under Fahri Efendiu wi 1917), a Moslem scholar from Tetove (Tetovo) in died young while performing military service in an Macedonia, devoted himself to the problem and Slovenia. A certain Sheh Ahmedi of Shkoder, a tie. came up with an alphabet in Arabic script com­ dervish of the Rufai sect, was also little known tur prising forty-four letters, both consonants and vow­ until recently when twenty-three of his religious Ar: els, which he published in his Elifbaja shqip, and subtly nationalist poems were discovered in a rna Istanbul 1911 [AH. 1327] (Albanian spelling book). manuscript from Strelly i Eperm near Deyan. Sheh aUl Rexhep Voka, born in the village of Shipkovice in Hyseni i Halvetive (1873-1926) was a religious hel the largely Albanian-speaking Tetove region, be­ scholar of the Halveti sect in Prizren of whom we the gan his studies in Istanbul in 1868 where he later have one twenty-four line ilahf of no particular by worked as a teacher and journalist. He returned to literary or theological value. Nothing seems to have un, Tetove in 1895 and was active as a mufti in survived of the works of Azem Efendi Olluri (1825· rea Monastir (Bitola) during the revolution of the Young 1913) of Kroimiroc in Kosovo or of his contempo­ Turks as well as a member of the Bashkimi (Unity) rary Hasan Efendi Hoti of Drenica in Kosovo, Society. Voka was the author of three other works whose Albanian-language divan was in his son's in . of note: Vendimet e Kongresit te Dibres, Monastir possession until 1945. par 1909 [A.Ij. 1325] (Resolutions of the Congress of tun Two poets active in the 1930s and 1940s bring Diber); Mendime, Istanbul 1911 [A.H. 1328] fon to a close the history of Albanian literature in (Thoughts) in which he expounds on the back­ mal Arabic script. Vejsel Xhelaludin Guta (1900-1979) ward state of Albania and the necessity of educa­ litel was born in the village of Zaskok near Ferizaj in tion; and Amavudye mufessal ilmihal, Istanbul 1911 dur Kosovo and studied at the Medresa of Mehmet (Primer of religion in Albanian). Rexhep Voka 's tior: Pasha in Prizren where he learned Arabic and alphabet did not go unnoticed as it was used the not Persian. He later worked as an imam and school year after its publication by one Fazil of Tirane to niti. teacher in Vojnoc near Shtime. Of his verse, we print a 32-page Albanian grammar with the Turk­ ally have five iHihis and one other poem dated 1942. ish title Saifi iptidai amavudi, Istanbul 1911 (El­ in t Mulla Hysein Hysni Statovci (b. 1900), born in ementary Albanian grammar). By this time, noV! Batllave, lived in Prishtine and Podujeve where he however, the days of writing in Arabic script for sirn] served as vice-principal of the Moslem elementary non-religious works were numbered. thee school opened by the above-mentioned Faik Has Also from this period are a number of little Maloku. He was involved in political and social The­ known Moslem poets of whom only a few poems life of pre-war Kosovo and was a strong supporter vive have survived. Among them are: Dervish Veseli of Albanian-language teaching. His poems were (1887-1950) of Rahovec, who travelled widely in written between the years 1935 and 1947. the Middle East and was killed accidently at the With these last two religious poets, still active Great Sa'di teke of Gjakove in 1950; Hafiz Imer E dUring the Second World War, the tradition of Shemsiu (1893-1945), imam of Talinovc, who Albanian in Arabic script vanishes once and for 2 C opened an Albanian-language elementary school all. Though Albanian literature in Arabic script c in Sazli-Talinovc and of whose estimated thirty had always been strongly influenced by and i religious poems we have but three; Dervish Idrizi, the cultural traditions of the Orient, by the twenti· ~ a blacksmith from Gjakove and author of one eth century it had become a devotional and litur· I poem dated 1908; educator Faik Maloku (1900­ gical pastime cultivated almost exclusively by ~ 1935), also known as Faik efendi of Prishtine, and dervishes, imams and local religious figures in Sheh Osmoni of Junik, of whom we have two Kosovo. Although an anachronism in itself, it main· . poems each; and Hafiz Islami (ca. 1910 - ca. tained one modest flame of Albanian culture in 1934), pseudonym of Islam Mehmet Bytyqi, from southern Yugoslavia at a time when writing and the village of Mllanaviq i Llapushes, who after education in Albanian were unthinkable and those

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~ndiu who openly advocated them were subject to swift MY "DHE-MITER" :e in and ruthless persecution by the Serbian authori­ i~r, a ties. In such a repressive atmosphere, this litera­ Tell me, 0 my Demeter Pelasgia, how fare You today?! lown ture offered a haven for Albanian writers since its Our "Earth Mother" You were; what do Your Children now say? gious Arabic script and its ostensibly religious character Do they know You as our common "Dhe-Miter" 1 in a made it too remote or too pious for the Belgrade Though their names have changed in the lands they now stay? Sbeb authorities to attack and suppress, an incompre­ gious hensible world of oriental mysticism cherished in Your Albanian Children DO know their Fathers as myrians nwe the seclusion of the tekes, mosques and medresas Though some may call themselves Epirotes or Macedonians. icular by a seemingly uneducated, impoverished and little But what about your Albanian Kosovar Children; have understood Moslem minority within the Christian They may know but yet who calls them Dardanians? 1825­ realm of the southern Slavs. mpo­ Other Moslem literature was no doubt written Who knows that "Kosova" is Homer's "Dardania", sovo, in Arabic script between the wars in Albania too, son's (He also called You "Divine Pelasgia") parallel to the dynamically developing 'real' litera­ And he tells us how these ancient Dardanians ture in the Latin alphabet, but few traces of the Aided their Trojan kinsmen against the Greek barbarians? bring former have come to light. It is to be feared that re in many such works in Arabic script, whether with Who knows that Your other children, the Etruscans, 1979) literary pretensions or not, were lost or destroyed Were the Forefathers of the ancient Romans; zaj in dUring the revolutionary campaign for the aboli­ That Umbrians, Ausmians, Oscans, and Brutians ~hmet tion of religion in Albania in 1967 which resulted Are the first names of the modem Italians? : and not only in the dissolution of all religious commu­ chool nities but also in the physical destruction of virtu­ Who knows that before the Hellenes inhabited Pelasgia, ~, we ally all mosques, tekes, churches and monasteries All of Greece was part of your Illyria; 1942. in the country. It is widely admitted in Albania That thus the "Ionian Sea/Our Lake" comes from Your language Irn in now at any rate that many works of art were :re he simply cast onto garbage heaps or burnt. The Which still is said "DETI IJON" in modem Albanian? ~ntary three volumes of verse by Bektash poet Ibrahim Faik Hasnaj would seem to constitute an exception. Who knows that the Phoenicians, also Children of Your Womb, social The coming years will show what else has sur­ Originated the phonetic alphabet which Greeks assume; )orter vived of this vanished cultural tradition. And that Your descendants throughout the Mediterranean area were Can still be "heard" via their carvings on their tombs? Robet ELSIE The present article is an adapted version of material from Show me, 0 my "Dhe-Nene", how can Imake aware lctive the author's corning History of Albanian Literature. All my Pelasgian kinsmen now living everywhere >n of To realize and admit You as our common "Earth-Mother" d for On Moslem literature in Albania before the mid-nineteenth And let the world know that in Albania You are still there? script century, see the present author's article: Albanian literature land in the Moslem tradition. Eighteenth and nineteenth century renti­ Albanian writing in Arabic script. in: Oriens, Journal of the Victor Chacha litur­ International Society for Oriental Research, Leiden, 33 (1992), y by p.287-306. ~s in nain­ re in : and hose

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